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Opening Credits

published Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Jersey Boys: A Tony award-winning Broadway musical adapted for the big screen by Clint Eastwood? If that doesn’t grab your interest, consider that it’s an R-rated, documentary-style telling of the story behind iconic 1960s vocal group The Four Seasons. John Lloyd Young, who also received a Tony for Best leading Actor, reprises his role as singer Frankie Valli in the film version that features characters speaking directly into the camera as they narrate the movie. Due to the fact that members of the Four Seasons had done time in prison, the group wasn’t often written about in their heyday, making a chronicle of their rise and fall even more compelling. R; 2 hr 14.

Joe: It’s been far too long since Nicolas Cage was taken seriously as an actor, and this might just be the film to bring critics (and former fans) back around. Directed by David Gordon Green (a respected indie filmmaker who dabbled in the mainstream with “Pineapple Express” and “Your Highness” before returning to form with last year’s “Prince Avalanche”), “Joe” is a gritty, hard-hitting southern gothic crime drama based on a novel by Larry Brown (“Dirty Work”, “Big Bad Love”). Recalling shades of last year’s underrated gem “Mud”, Cage plays an ex-con who finds redemption through friendship with a teen (Tye Sheridan), but the face to watch for is that of actor (and real-life homeless alcoholic) Gary Poulter, who sadly passed away before “Joe” was released. 1 hr. 46; R.

Think Like A Man Too: My biggest problem with the “Hangover” movies wasn’t just the fact that the sequels were merely remakes of the original. The female roles were one-dimensional, giving the actors basically nothing to do as the men ran wild. Director Tim Story (“Barbershop”) struck gold with 2012’s “Think Like a Man”, unseating that summer’s juggernaut hit “The Hunger Games” for the top spot at the box office. For the sequel, Story has brought back his entire ensemble, including Kevin Hart (whose previous release, “Ride Along”, is the funniest movie I’ve seen all year), and sent them all to Las Vegas. And unlike Bradley Cooper and his bros, the women in “Think Like a Man Too” are in for a weekend of debauchery to rival their male counterparts. PG-13; 1 hr 45.